I was born in the heart of provincial Russia almost 26 years ago. In due time I received a Master's degree in Experimental Physics only to realize that peering through the microscope and fixing cables was not exactly what I wanted to do. Trying to figure out what I wanted, along with fortunate coincidences, lead me first to Central European University in Warsaw where I received another MA (this time in Sociology), and last year to Columbia University in New York. My research mingles with computational economics, statistical data analysis, and social networks. My major discovery so far has been finding out that I am only two handshakes from Dalai Lama and at most three handshakes from President Putin. Future work will focus on eliminating unnecessary intermediary vertices.

Home page: http://www.columbia.edu/~gk297